Carolyn Seto
Clare Boothe Luce Postdoctoral Fellow

MIT Energy Initiative
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave
Building 66-060
Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Phone: (617) 253-5973
Email: cjseto <at> mit.edu

Education
2007       Ph. D., Petroleum Engineering, Stanford University
2003       M. Sc., Petroleum Engineering, Stanford University
1998       B. Sc., Engineering Chemistry, Queen’s University at Kingston

Research interests
My research interests are in understanding the physics of compositional multiphase flow through porous media for hydrocarbon reservoir development and CO2 sequestration.  Multiphase flow involves many complex physical interactions and accurate simulation of them is computationally intensive.  My approach is develop limiting case analytical models which capture the essential physics of these processes in order to better understand the transport in porous media.  The advantage to this approach is that simulation run times are dramatically reduced, thereby offering a physics based methodology to efficiently and effectively model and predict flow through porous media. 

Specific research interests include:

• Geological CO2 sequestration
• Unconventional resource production, e.g. heavy oil, tight gas, coal bed methane
• Large scale spatial data integration
• Hyperbolic conservation laws
• Streamline simulation

Journal Articles
Seto, C. J., Orr, F. M. Jr.:  Analytical Solutions for Multicomponent, Two-Phase Flow in Porous Media with Double Contact Discontinuities.  Transport in Porous Media, accepted, in press.  DOI: 10.1007/s11242-008-9292-y

Seto, C. J., Jessen, K., Orr, F. M. Jr.:  A Multicomponent, Two-Phase Flow Model for CO2 Storage and Enhanced Coal Bed Methane Recovery.  SPE Journal, accepted, in press.

Seto, C. J., Jessen, K., Orr, F. M. Jr.:  Using Analytical Solutions in Compositional Streamline Simulation of a Field Scale CO2 Injection Project.  SPE Reservoir Engineering and Evaluation, 10 (4) 393-405 (2007).

Conference Papers
Seto, C. J., Tang, G. T., Jessen, K., Kovscek, A. R., Orr, F. M. Jr.:  Sorption Hysteresis and its Effect on CO2 Storage and Enhanced Coalbed Methane Recovery.  Poster H33D-1542 presented at the AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 11-15 December, 2006.

Seto, C. J., Jessen, K., Orr, F. M. Jr.:  A Four Component, Two-Phase Flow Model for CO2 Storage and Enhanced Coalbed Methane Recovery.  Paper SPE 102376 presented at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, TX, 24-27 September, 2006.

Seto, C. J., Jessen, K., La Force, T., Orr, F. M. Jr.:  Analytical Modeling of CO2 Sequestration and Enhanced Coalbed Methane Recovery.  Presented at the 10th European Conference on the Mathematics of Oil Recovery, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 4-7 September, 2006.

Seto, C. J., Orr, F. M. Jr.:  New Analytical Solutions for Flue Gas Sequestration in Oil Reservoirs.  Poster presented at the Gordon Conference on Flow and Transport in Porous Media, Andover, NH, 30 July-4 August, 2006.

Seto, C. J., Jessen, K., Orr, F. M. Jr.:  Analytical Solutions for CO2 Sequestration and Enhanced Coalbed Methane Recovery.  Presented at GHGT-8, the 8th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies, Trondheim, Norway, 19-22 June, 2006.

Seto, C. J., Jessen, K., Orr, F. M. Jr.:  Analytical Modeling of CO2 Storage and Enhanced Coal Bed Methane Recovery.  Poster B33A-1012 presented at the AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 5-9 December, 2005.

Seto, C. J., Jessen, K., Orr, F. M. Jr.:  Compositional Streamline Simulation of Field Scale Condensate Vaporization by Gas Injection.  Paper SPE 79690 presented at the SPE Reservoir Simulation Symposium, Houston, TX, 3-5 February, 2003.

Seto, C. J., Beliveau, D. A.:  Reservoir Souring in the Caroline Field.  Paper SPE 59778 presented at the Gas Technology Symposium, Calgary AB, 3-5 April, 2000.

McRae Group Offices:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Building 66-060
77 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone1: (617) 253-5973
Phone2: (617) 253-0285

webmaster: Ken Hu, email at: mcraegroup-www at mit.edu